TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese automaker Subaru Corp said on Friday its operating profit for the past year halved after it suffered a string of setbacks including production delays and mounting recalls.
Japan's seventh-biggest automaker released its results hours ahead of schedule after it inadvertently uploaded its financials on its website earlier than planned. The company initially withdrew the material, but not before social media noticed, sending its shares down more than 2 percent after the snafu.
The results, officially released at 10:25 a.m. (0125 GMT) instead of the scheduled 1:00 p.m., showed operating profit fell 48.5 percent to 195.53 billion yen ($1.78 billion) in the year ended in March, in line with analysts' estimates.
"We deeply apologise for the trouble this has caused," the maker of Legacy sedans and Forester sport-utility vehicle crossovers said in an emailed statement about the early release.
For the year through March 2020, Subaru expects operating profit to jump 33 percent to 260 billion yen under international accounting standards it is adopting from this year, as it expects vehicle sales to recover, rising 5.8 percent to 1.058 million units.
Under the previous Japanese accounting standards, operating profit would rise 28 percent to 250 billion yen, it said.
Last year's dismal results were weighed down by costs related to production delays after the discovery of a defective steering component stopped output at its sole assembly plant in Japan for two weeks earlier this year.
Subaru has also been facing mounting costs related to vehicle recalls in Japan after it admitted to cheating on domestic quality inspections, while slowing sales in the United States - its biggest market - also hurt its bottom line.
Subaru's recent production- and quality-related issues are the side effects of its rapid growth following a ramp-up in output in the United States in the past few years to keep up with booming demand from for its rugged-looking models.
The firm for years raked in higher sales in the United States with its popular all-wheel-drive cars, but sales have plateaued in the past year, snapping a five-year winning streak.
As the smallest of Japan's major automakers, Subaru is also struggling to invest in and develop lower-emissions vehicles and on-demand transportation services necessary to survive the technological upheaval in the global auto industry.
As a result, it has formed a partnership with Toyota Motor Corp under which it will use vehicles technologies developed by its bigger, deeper-pocketed rival, including lower-emission plug-in hybrid systems, in Subaru vehicles.